drinking

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Confession time. I am a tea-totaler, literally. Iced tea, hot tea, green tea, you name it, I love it. While I don’t limit all of my beverage consumption to just tea, it IS all non-alcoholic. Sadly, this was not always the case. Now, I will say that I was not a partier. I can’t say that I was ever drunk. I did, however occasionally have a drink when I was at a Christmas party, or some special social function.

I didn’t really see anything wrong with it, but it also wasn’t something that really had any power over me either. It has been over 17 years since I have had anything alcoholic to drink, and that is a result of a deliberate decision making process.

When I was pregnant with our first child, I swore off all of the usual things, alcohol being at the top of the list. During that time, my husband and I started discussing alcohol, and we both decided there were a few PERSONAL reasons that we should abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages:

We were on a budget, and generally-speaking, alcohol is not inexpensive

Although many alcoholic drinks are very tasty, there are many other things that are just as, or even more, tasty; and definitely less expensive

Even a small amount of alcohol can limit your good judgment or influence your actions

There was nothing very deep in our thought-process, but we did make a conscious decision to steer clear of alcohol. As time went on, and people would ask us why we didn’t drink, or what we thought about other people drinking, we began to develop more FAITH-based reasons for abstaining:

As Christians, we felt that if people saw us drink an alcoholic beverage, it might damage our Christian witness

To us, anything that had power or control over us, was questionable

We were unclear as to the Biblical stance on alcoholic beverages, and felt it best to err on the side of caution

As I study my Bible, and grow in my Christian faith, I find solid BIBLICAL evidence that abstinence is the proper way to go:

“Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations: And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;” ~ Leviticus 10:9-10 (A warning to the priests not to drink alcohol. Without alcoholic influence, good and sound decisions can be made)

“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” ~ 1 Peter 2:5 (When we are saved, we are members of the holy priesthood, and I believe as priests, we should still heed the warning from Leviticus to abstain from alcohol)

“Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” ~ Proverbs 20:1 (If we want to be wise, and to be able to make good, and God-pleasing decisions, we should refrain from alcohol)

There are many, many verses in the Bible that warn about the negative effects of alcohol. I believe that if the Bible portrays alcohol as such a dark force, it is something that we should seriously consider removing from our lives. In the end, while there is nothing bad that can come from NOT drinking alcohol, there is plenty that is bad if we do.